Rewriting a Discursive Practice: Atheist Adaptation of Coming Out Discourse

Abstract

Coming out is a powerful way for individuals to disclose, constitute, and perform membership in stigmatized identity categories. The practice has now spread far beyond its LGBTQ origins. In this essay, I examine how atheists and other secularists have taken up and adapted coming out discourse to meet their situational and rhetorical needs. Through an analysis of 50 narratives about coming out atheist, I show that atheist writers use coming out discourse to claim both high and low agency over their identities. They both follow and resist a low-agency approach that has sometimes characterized LGBTQ uses of coming out discourse. Furthermore, I argue that the attribution of high personal agency in coming out discourse and other discourses of identity can introduce themes of deliberation, choice, and uncertainty, leading to a richer public discussion of identity category membership.

Atheism in the American Animal Rights Movement: An Invisible Majority

“…A major element of anti-atheist discrimination is the pressure for atheists to 'pass' as religious or at least open to religious beliefs. This phenomenon disavows the atheist identity and thus contributes to the psychological distress of atheist individuals (Brewster et al 2016). If the Nonhuman Animal rights movement is actively discouraging atheists from expressing their areligious identity -or worse, if it is pressuring atheist activists to embrace a false religious identity in their interactions with movement audiences -this would itself constitute a violation of civil rights.…”

“…Erving Goffman (1963) noted that individuals burdened with stigmatised identities will often engage in impression management in the hopes of controlling how others will view them and to avoid undue discrimination. Since vegans frequently disrupt communal food rituals in their unwillingness to consume animal products, they might risk alienation from their peers (Bresnahan et al 2016); thus, vegans may seek to alter their impressions to manage this stigma (Greenebaum 2012). One study, for instance, finds that American vegans frequently subscribe to the notion that speciesism is a collective social problem that requires a collective response.…”

“…Atheists are, in fact, so marginalised that their marginalisation is infrequently acknowledged or taken seriously. Psychological research even finds evidence of stress typically associated with minority status, suggesting that atheists are quite conscious of their stigma and the discrimination they face (Brewster et al 2016).…”

An overview of coming out research: Introducing a three‐lens typology

“…While often acknowledging the limitations of the application of coming out in these new areas, authors argue for its conceptual benefit. Cloud (2017) summarises:…”

“…Transcending the coming out focus—though not the intersectionality—of sexual and gender identities entirely, researchers wrote about or reported participants' wording of coming out as fat 39 (e.g., Gurrieri & Cherrier, 2013; Murray, 2005; Saguy & Ward, 2011), HIV positive (Broqua, 2009; He & Rofel, 2010; Martinez et al., 2014; Paxton, 2002; Sayles et al., 2007) which, among LGBTQ+ people is sometimes referred to as the ‘second closet’ (Berg & Ross, 2014; Di Feliciantonio, 2020), ill (e.g., Myers, 2004; Paterson, 2008; Schneider & Conrad, 1980), mentally ill (e.g., Bos et al., 2009; Corrigan et al., 2010; Corrigan et al., 2016; Corrigan & Matthews, 2003; Golay et al., 2021), disabled (e.g., Davidson & Henderson, 2010; Samuels, 2013; Smith & Jones, 2020; Solis, 2006), atheist (e.g., Cloud, 2017; Smith, 2011; Zimmerman et al., 2015), Jewish (e.g., Stratton, 2000), poor or working‐class within academia (e.g., Callahan, 2008; Tokarczyk & Sowinska, 1997), being an undocumented immigrant (e.g., Cisneros & Bracho, 2019; Enriquez & Saguy, 2016), vegetarian (e.g., Korinek, 2012), non‐drinker at work (e.g., Romo, 2018), an alcoholic (e.g., Romo et al., 2016), and being a drug‐using academic (e.g., Ross et al., 2020), violent man (e.g., Gottzén, 2017), or poststructuralist (e.g., Teman & Lahman, 2019). While often acknowledging the limitations of the application of coming out in these new areas, authors argue for its conceptual benefit.…”